Labour deputy leader Chris Fearne refuses to say whether government will back the Opposition’s proposed law seeking to protect journalists from crippling international lawsuits

Labour has not committed itself to supporting the Private Member’s Bill presented in Parliament last week to prohibit expensive international lawsuits against Maltese journalists.

Instead, deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne told The Shift that “the Labour Party will be analysing [MP Jason] Azzopardi Private Member’s Bill from a legal point of view.”

The Private Member’s Bill presented by Nationalist Party MP Jason Azzopardi aims to protect media organisations from such threats by giving Maltese courts “exclusive” jurisdiction over any Maltese publications “irrespective of whether the publication in question is hosted or otherwise broadcast from servers located outside Malta.”

Fearne said the new Media and Defamation Bill “will not permit the use of SLAPP procedures in Maltese law courts” but did not commit himself on whether Maltese journalists will be protected from lawsuits in foreign jurisdictions.

Partit Demokratiku, which has two MPs, has said that it will back the bill. In Europe, MEPs have called for legislation that would curtail abusive legal SLAPP practices. A group of MEPs from various political families called on the European Commission to take note of the recent report made by Mapping Media Freedom with regard to SLAPP practices against The Shift.

SLAPP lawsuits are intended to intimidate and silence investigative journalists and independent media by burdening them with exorbitant legal expenses until they abandon their stance as a result of the threat of financially crippling lawsuits abroad.